Contact Details

Telephone

work +44 (0)1224 272491

Email

katya.krylova@abdn.ac.uk

Address

The University of Aberdeen School of Language, Literature, Music and Visual Culture
King's College
Aberdeen AB24 3UB

Web Links

www.katyakrylova.org

Google Scholar profile

Biography

Katya Krylova has been a Lecturer at the University of Aberdeen since 2018. She studied German and Italian at Churchill College, Cambridge, where she also completed an MPhil in European Literature and Culture and a PhD in German Literature (funded by the AHRC) in 2011. During her undergraduate studies she spent a year at the Humboldt University in Berlin. As part of her PhD work, she undertook the first of many subsequent research visits to Vienna. The completion of her PhD thesis saw her return to Vienna to work at the Ludwig Boltzmann Institute for the History and Theory of Biography (2010-2012). She has also held research and teaching positions in the Department of German Studies at the University of Nottingham (2012-2015, Leverhulme Early Career Fellowship), in the Department of German at King’s College London (2016), and in the Department of Modern Languages at the University of Birmingham (2017). She is the author of two monographs. Her first monograph, Walking Through History: Topography and Identity in the Works of Ingeborg Bachmann and Thomas Bernhard (Oxford: Peter Lang, 2013), was the winner of the 2011 Peter Lang Young Scholars Competition in German Studies. Her second monograph, The Long Shadow of the Past: Contemporary Austrian Literature, Film, and Culture (Rochester, NY: Camden House, 2017), was published in June 2017. The book has been widely reviewed, was included in CHOICE's 2018 Outstanding Academic Titles, and a paperback edition was published in February 2020. She is also the sole editor of the multi-authored volume New Perspectives on Contemporary Austrian Literature and Culture (Oxford: Peter Lang, 2018).

Research Interests

My research is highly interdisciplinary and lies in the areas of modern and contemporary Austrian literature, film, visual culture, and memory studies. The legacy that Austria's past continues to exert on its present constitutes my principal research interest. I am the author/editor of three academic books. My first book, Walking Through History: Topography and Identity in the Works of Ingeborg Bachmann and Thomas Bernhard (Oxford: Peter Lang, 2013), was the winner of the 2011 Peter Lang Young Scholars Competition in German Studies. I was also the recipient of the 2010 Sylvia Naish Research Student Lecture prize for my doctoral work, awarded by the Institute of Modern Languages Research, University of London. My second book, entitled The Long Shadow of the Past: Contemporary Austrian Literature, Film, and Culture (Rochester, NY: Camden House, 2017), was published in June 2017. The monograph undertakes close readings of key contemporary Austrian literary texts, films, and memorials, which treat the legacy of Nazism and the Holocaust, examining what these reveal about the evolving memory culture in contemporary Austria. The book has been widely reviewed, was included in CHOICE's 2018 Outstanding Academic Titles, and a paperback edition was published in February 2020. I am also the sole editor of the multi-authored volume, New Perspectives on Contemporary Austrian Literature and Culture (Oxford: Peter Lang, 2018), arising from an international conference on Contemporary Austrian Literature, Film and Culture (CALFAC 2015), which I organised at the University of Nottingham in April 2015. 

In addition to the above-mentioned books, I have published 20 papers in peer-reviewed journals and edited volumes, and given over 40 conference/seminar papers at international and national conferences and seminars. Since 2009, I have regularly conducted archival research in Austria. I have worked with Ingeborg Bachmann's literary estate in the Austrian National Library (during my PhD work), and carried out biographical research on the Austrian modernist writer Hugo von Hofmannsthal at the University of Vienna archives (during my work at the Ludwig Boltzmann Institute for the History and Theory of Biography, Vienna, 2010-2012). During the course of my Leverhulme Early Career Fellowship (2012-2015), I undertook two further research visits to Vienna, Austria, in order to carry out research at the Austrian National Library and the Documentation Centre for Modern Austrian Literature, and to interview writers and filmmakers.

I welcome enquiries from potential postgraduate students on topics in my areas of expertise.

Current Research

With the support of the Aberdeen Humanities Fund Development Trust Research Award (2019-2020), I am currently embarking on a new research project on evolving cultural representations of Austrian resistance during the Second World War.

Collaborations

Together with Dr Dora Osborne (University of St Andrews) and Dr Frauke Matthes (University of Edinburgh), I co-organised a conference on ‘The Politics of Contemporary German Culture’ at the University of St Andrews, held on 26-27 April 2019. The conference focused on the issue of how the contemporary cultural landscape in Germany and Austria is being shaped by current political concerns and to consider, through dialogue between academics and practitioners, how this affects German Studies as a discipline and a practice. Five themed panels focused on political or politicized aspects of contemporary life that have become increasingly significant for German and Austrian culture today: market forces, Europe, resurgent nationalism, memory and memorialization, and (German) language.

A blog post about the conference can be viewed here. A special issue of the Edinburgh German Yearbook (vol. 14, published by Camden House), which will include chapters arising from selected papers originally presented at the conference, will be published in 2021.

The conference was made possible thanks to the generous support of the Arts and Humanities Research Council - AHRC Open World Research Initiative “Cross-Language Dynamics: Reshaping Community” at the Institute of Modern Languages Research, the School of Modern Languages at the University of St Andrews, the Moray Endowment Fund of The University of Edinburgh, and the University of Aberdeen.

Together with Dr Ernest Schonfield (University of Glasgow), I co-organised a conference on the landmark Austrian author Thomas Bernhard, held virtually (in the wake of the Covid-19 pandemic) on 17-18 September 2020. The conference was supported by the Goethe Insitute Glasgow. Additional conference sponsors were the Austrian Cultural Forum London, the Ingeborg Bachmann Centre for Austrian Literature and Culture at the Institute of Modern Languages Research London, the University of Glasgow, and the University of Aberdeen. Please see https://bernhardglasgow2020.wordpress.com/ for further details. An online exhibition of photo-illustrations by Heiko Berner for Bernhard’s Ein Kind/A Child accompanied the conference. The bilingual exhibition catalogue was published in December 2019 and may be viewed here. An edited volume, arising from the conference, is planned for 2021. 

Research Grants

Aberdeen Humanities Fund Development Trust Research Award (2019-2020, extended until 2021 due to Covid-19 travel restrictions) 

Friends of Aberdeen University Library Collection Development Award (2018)

Leverhulme Early Career Fellowship (2012-2015)

AHRC Doctoral Studentship (2007-2010)

Teaching Responsibilities

Undergraduate Teaching in 2020/21 in German Studies and Film & Visual Culture

• GM1556 Modern German Culture 2 (convenor)
• GM3050 German Language Study (convenor)
• GM3077/4077 Specialised Study in German (HS1): Landmarks of Modern Austrian Literature (convenor)
• GM3578/GM4578 Specialised Study in German (HS2): Confronting the Nazi Past in German and Austrian Film (convenor)
• GM4052 German Dissertation - Joint Honours (supervisor)
• FS1508 Introduction to Film and the Cinematic Experience (lectures)
• FS2007 Visualising Modernity (convenor)
• FS2507 Visualising Revolution (lectures and tutorials)
• FS30EA/40ED Confronting the Nazi Past in German and Austrian Film (convenor)
• FS35FD/45FD Cinematic Cities (lectures and seminars)
• FS4006 Dissertation in Film & Visual Culture (supervisor)
• FS4506 Dissertation in Film & Visual Culture (supervisor)

Undergraduate courses taught previously

• GM3578/GM4578 German Specialised Study: Contemporary Austrian Literature and Film (convenor)
• GM351F/GM451F Film and Politics: German and Austrian Filmmakers Facing the World (convenor)
• FS30EF/40EF Film and Politics: German and Austrian Filmmakers Facing the World (convenor)

Postgraduate Teaching

I teach on the MLitt in Film, Visual Culture and Arts Management, where I also supervise dissertation projects. Aditionally, I supervise dissertation projects on the MSc in Cultural and Creative Communication, and have previously taught on the MSc in Translation Studies. 

PhD supervision

I am first supervisor to Lauren Cuthbert (2020-), whose PhD focuses on films made by the GDR documentary filmmakers Heynowski and Scheumann about the Vietnam War. I act as second supervisor to Denis Kneip (2019-), who is undertaking a practice-based PhD, examining the role of narrative and the cinemafication of computer games.

I welcome enquiries from potential postgraduate students on topics in my areas of expertise.

External Responsibilities

Advisory Board Member, Ingeborg Bachmann Centre for Austrian Literature and Culture, London

Fellow, Higher Education Academy

Assessor, Scottish Universities Insight Institute

Member, Women in German Studies (previously Secretary, 2015-2019)

Member, Association for German Studies in Great Britain and Ireland

Member, Austrian Studies Association

Book reviewer for Austrian Studies, Journal of Austrian Studies, Journal of Contemporary European Studies and Modern Language Review, and peer reviewer for The German Quarterly, Journal of Austrian Studies, Seminar, Modern Jewish Studies and Modern Languages Open. I have also acted as an assessor for the Bithell Dissertations Series.

Admin Responsibilities

Co-Director of the GWW Centre for Visual Culture 

Discipline Research Lead for German

Discipline Research Lead for Film & Visual Culture

Library Representative for Film & Visual Culture

School Visits Coordinator for Film & Visual Culture

Go Abroad Tutor in the School of Language, Literature, Music and Visual Culture

Personal Tutor in the School of Language, Literature, Music and Visual Culture

Member of Scottish Graduate School for the Arts & Humanities Internal (UoA) Selection Panel

Publications 

View publications